San Marco Publix Parking Lot Floods on Opening Day Despite Resident Concerns

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Aliera Peterson captured video Thursday showing people wading through ankle-deep water in the parking lot of the new Publix in San Marco on opening day.

“It was after five to 10 minutes of moderate rain,” Peterson said. “I shudder just to think what it’s going to be like when we get a really severe storm.”

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Action News Jax checked the Doppler First Alert radar, and it appears San Marco received about 3/4 inch to an inch of rain in about 30 minutes near the Publix.

Peterson says residents had been voicing concerns about the potential flooding for months at town hall meetings and to city council members.

She says they were assured that flooding would not be a problem.

“It’s been a known problem for a long time, and with 20 years to think about what would happen in this field, it seems that very little has been done despite the known problems,” she said.

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Peterson recalls seeing standing water at the site before crews began building the structure more than a year ago.

She made it clear that she and others in San Marco were thrilled that Publix was there; it simply asks that the problem of the floods be solved.

“It’s just disappointing that it’s a small challenge, although we thought they would have fixed that,” she said.

Action News Jax has contacted Publix and the developer, Regency Centers.

A Regency Centers spokesperson said in part: “Our teams have identified what we believe to be the issue and are addressing it as we speak. There has been a lot of rain at the site since construction of this area was completed without any problems, but – of course – yesterday was an outlier.

Action News Jax got in touch with Publix on Friday afternoon. Publix is working on our request.

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